The Second National Coastal Oceans Report Pronounces Fair Conditions 

Carl Terry, Director, 
EPA Office of External Affairs 
terry.carl@epa.gov 

The Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds, Coastal Programs, announces the release of the National Coastal Condition Report II. Second in a series of environmental assessments of U.S. coastal waters and the Great Lakes, it summarizes the condition of ecological resources in the estuaries of the United States. The resulting ecological assessment of the nation's estuaries shows estuaries to be in fair condition, varying from poor conditions in the Northeast and Puerto Rico to fair conditions in the Southeast, Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes and West Coast. 

The report is based on 50,000 data sets from 1997-2000 collected from over 1,500 randomly selected sites at Federal, State, and local sources (most notably 23 coastal states through EPA's National Coastal Assessment Program). The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey collaborated with EPAin this endeavor. It is available at: www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/nccr2/

[ back to top ]